Weeboll

NO MONEY NO SKI

well i went ahead and bought as above and happy to report its considerably faster overall as a machine, much more snappy but that could be as much due to the ssd i have running at sata600 rather than previous sata300 and the memory now being ddr3..

the onboard graphics plays tombraider underworld and blurays perfectly. i haven't tried anything more taxing yet mainly because i don't have anything but will try some new games shortly.

the main difference is the power consumption and the lack of noise, cpu fan is barely running, chassis fan not needed at all and the power draw of the system overall is often so low that the swithcing power block i have that turns off the hifi amp and tv when the htpc goes to standby often thinks the machine is on standby whilst its running and turns everything off!

looking forward to the 45w draw of Kaveri when it arrives in stock though I'll probably struggle to justify the upgrade

Weeboll

NO MONEY NO SKI

i use our htpc to record and view all tv, play bluray, game occasionally, watch picture slideshows of holiday snaps and host an extensive movie and music collection though latterly we just stream from online provider. silence has always been the key goal, i treat each build the same as a highly overclocked machine with same attention to cooling detail and optimising parts but then running them as lo and slow as possible.. i route all wiring very carefully to maximise air flow, upgrade motherboard heatsinks etc

Shinma

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I just have the secondary system running Windows 7 w/ Media Center connected to the tv and use a MCE remote.
My tertiary systems usually end up getting "borrowed" permanently by relatives and friends so never a chance to dabble with HTPC.
And before I even consider a HTPC, I have to figure out/build a decent NAS.
UnRAID looked promising but due to poor documentation of current hardware and such... considering others.

Shinma

____________

Weeboll

NO MONEY NO SKI

Nope just a very low voltage scythe low profile CPU cooler and a focus on low watt components. Every thing else passive.. I used to have Zalman fanfares plugged into everything but gradually removed all fans as components got lower power over years